DaveInGA
Well-known member
Went on a fishing trip with my son Thursday, 10/11/13. Didn't catch much, just a spotted bass and a channel catfish, but we had a good time. It was his first time fishing with me since he was a small kid (I put aside fishing for his love of sports, baseball, football and basketball, those took up a lot of time back then. Many of his teams I helped out with the coaching, no regrets there.), so it was a pretty new experience for him.
He got to try out fishing with a spinning rod for the first time, quite a challenge and he did pretty well, considering it was a totally new thing to him. Was fun watching him do something I hadn't coached him on. He wasn't sure if he'd done okay or not, but I was happy with him.
For the fun of it, on the way out I ran the boat out a bit with both of us (500 pounds of men plus tackle, etc.) and got an easy 30 MPH on the GPS with the feeling as long as I had gasoline, the motor could do that all day long without missing a beat. I had lake tested the boat at max rpm and achieved about 32.7 on the GPS, but saw a bit of porpoising at that speed and had to back off. I decided then not to put a whale tale on the motor to give myself more power. The boat runs beautifully on plane at 3000 rpm with a speed of around 24 MPH. Boat ran really well, both on the gas and trolling motor.
The extra torque of the larger trolling motor really moves the boat quickly when you need to get move quickly and I'm glad I over powered the trolling motor. Makes for a much more energy efficient package as well. Have ran the trolling motor batteries a half day with no discernible change in charge level. My fair skin won't let me stay out a full day.
Unfortunately, I managed to cut the sonar wire to the front Humminbird in half and forgot to turn the rear fish finder on, so no vid of the GPS speed, you'll have to trust me until I can get back out on the lake. My plan is to repair the wire on the front sonar, pull the TM apart enough to get the wire in a more protected location, then put the TM back together. Something I wanted to avoid, but will have to do to protect the puck wire.
Without further ado, here's the three short vids my son made for me. They're primitive and not perfect, because I'm don't know how to edit these things, but right now are the best I can do. I hope you all find encouragement from then to complete your conversions, modifications and refits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfu8fJCWENk&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbjw4x9nDnI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1q9to6N2Y
He got to try out fishing with a spinning rod for the first time, quite a challenge and he did pretty well, considering it was a totally new thing to him. Was fun watching him do something I hadn't coached him on. He wasn't sure if he'd done okay or not, but I was happy with him.
For the fun of it, on the way out I ran the boat out a bit with both of us (500 pounds of men plus tackle, etc.) and got an easy 30 MPH on the GPS with the feeling as long as I had gasoline, the motor could do that all day long without missing a beat. I had lake tested the boat at max rpm and achieved about 32.7 on the GPS, but saw a bit of porpoising at that speed and had to back off. I decided then not to put a whale tale on the motor to give myself more power. The boat runs beautifully on plane at 3000 rpm with a speed of around 24 MPH. Boat ran really well, both on the gas and trolling motor.
The extra torque of the larger trolling motor really moves the boat quickly when you need to get move quickly and I'm glad I over powered the trolling motor. Makes for a much more energy efficient package as well. Have ran the trolling motor batteries a half day with no discernible change in charge level. My fair skin won't let me stay out a full day.
Unfortunately, I managed to cut the sonar wire to the front Humminbird in half and forgot to turn the rear fish finder on, so no vid of the GPS speed, you'll have to trust me until I can get back out on the lake. My plan is to repair the wire on the front sonar, pull the TM apart enough to get the wire in a more protected location, then put the TM back together. Something I wanted to avoid, but will have to do to protect the puck wire.
Without further ado, here's the three short vids my son made for me. They're primitive and not perfect, because I'm don't know how to edit these things, but right now are the best I can do. I hope you all find encouragement from then to complete your conversions, modifications and refits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfu8fJCWENk&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbjw4x9nDnI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1q9to6N2Y
